The Dream Shifter

Chapter 173

"Ayumi!? How can you do this to our friends?!" Yuki leapt forward grabbing a hold of Eudokia. "Let them go now!" He could not believe what he saw from her. He knew that she how upset she got with any of them going her against her plans, but he never thought she would go so far.

Eudokia snapped her arms out of Yuki's grasp. After freeing herself from Yuki, she slugged him hard in the face with her fist knowing how irrational he was at the moment. She had to keep control of him or he would ruin everything. An unknown Meso Prosecho user running around Atlantis would force the military's involvement. But Yuki never saw the big picture. "No. I'm doing what must be done to ensure you get to the capital without trouble."

Yuki lifted himself off the floor a little. His eyes held surprise that Eudokia struck. "But we've already caused trouble! The village is being sacked because of us!" He did not understand what she was thinking. They were supposed to be her people. He thought she cared about their safety.

"They don't know you're here yet. They are only searching. This isn't the only village that's going to be searched. Don't think you can be everywhere and stop everything from happening. This isn't your fault."

"But it's happening right in front of you! How can you not care about it?!"

"So just because it's in front of you have to do something? You can't protect a country with that weak thinking. You have to see everything even what's not in front of you. Else you can't protect anything."

Hesitation cut into Yuki for a moment as he heard Eudokia's words. He turned his gaze towards the window hearing the voices of the screaming villagers getting closer. Each second to listen racked him completely. It felt as though it poured into him. They filled him until it burned like molten metal ran through his veins. He just wanted to close his ears, but his hands refused to move. 'Is she right? But I could help them…right?'

Yuki's hand tightened up again fighting with own instincts. A part of what Eudokia said reached him. As much as he hated the thought of what she said actually being true, denying it only made it more painful. He did not know what to do anymore. For him to ignore them went against everything he knew. Yet his actions had more significance than before. He only had himself to think about. An entire people made the scales change. It no longer was just himself anymore. 'What can I do? Is fleeing the only option I have?' Yuki sought answers around the room feeling lost.

No one in the room had an answer for him. They kept to themselves left in disinterest with the situation or uncertainty. However, one of his friends could not deal with it any longer. A light suddenly broke from within the room. It took a few moments to realize what happened and find the source giving plenty of time to finish.

The shattering of something like glass echoed through the room. Seiji gave a relieved sigh as he stood glaring at Eudokia, completely surprised that he managed to break through.

She took a cautious step back to prepare herself seeing the way that Seiji looked at her. 'Impossible! I thought I accounted for his strength! Is he even stronger than Saki? And what was that light?' Eudokia readied herself for whatever Seiji might have planned as shallow as it undoubtedly would be.

Seiji ground his teeth as he bled out seconds in mounting tension. Everyone in the room felt like he would punch Eudokia knowing how he acted. They waited to see what he did with uncertain anticipation. And he did not disappoint their expectations finally lifting up his arm already with his hand tightened up. In the next moment a painful crunch let out as he hit his target by surprise.

Yuki laid back on the floor, which he became unwillingly accustomed to it. "What was that for?!" He rubbed the other side of his face where Seiji walloped him.

"I had to knock some sense into you!"

"Huh?"

"Why the hell are you hesitating?!"

"…but…"

"It's a simple decision! You don't need to think about it!"

Nothing could be simple anymore. Yuki started to understand that from Eudokia. He did not like the feeling it brought him, but it made painful sense. "No, it's not so simple!" Another punch to his face came in, again not expecting a second from Seiji. Yuki staggered, but it brought him to his feet to face down Seiji. "What the hell's matter with everyone punching me?! What happened to just talking?!"

"Words don't get through to you as well as a punch!" shoved Seiji getting into his face. It made him sick to see Yuki being weak willed about taking action. The Yuki he knew did not hesitate. Certainty filled every movement and action that he made, not the fear that poured over him as he saw from him at that moment. "Do those people outside need help?"

"Yes!" Yuki replied without question.

"Then there you have your answer!"

"What!?"

Seiji brushed back Yuki going to the window. The barrier that Eudokia erected remained sternly still as the last act of defiance. He spared no moment for it or Eudokia slamming his fist through the transparent wall. Around his arm the field cracked out falling apart in pieces leaving a small hole. Seiji threw in his other arm tearing down the barrier until he made enough room for the window. "Let's go! Whoever feels that it is the right thing to do to help someone suffering follow me!" He jumped out of the window disappearing in the night.

Only a few moments passed to reveal Yuki at the window. Eudokia reached out to him for appeal. However, his eyes fixed her with a determined stare. The resolve inside him had shifted becoming strong and rigid. She lost her chance.

Yuki hopped up on the ledge of the window staring out at the ground. His mind looked back at Eudokia with the look like she had given up cracking through her features. He tilted his head back into the room. "I'm sorry, but he's right. This is just my nature."

"…I know…"

A second later Yuki leapt out to follow Seiji. Taking up behind him, Yumi went to the window looking down at the distance that she had to go to make it. It felt further than it actually was, but before she made her attempt Yori grabbed her. She stared up at him. "You coming with me, brother?"

No pleading or doubt from his little sister made Yori step back. He did not expect her to appear so focused. The ground that he had given up to her made the little more seemed nearly pointless. However, the life of his sister and danger made him hold on tighter. It was not pointless. "It's too dangerous for us to go out there, Yumi! We aren't like those two."

"There's more than just fighting that we can do!"

"If they see us we'll be targets!"

Yumi narrowed her eyes more tired of her brother making up excuses for them. Taking a page from Seiji and Yuki, she did something without thinking of the consequences. She already had the window in her back from Yori pressing. A little more effort pushed her out of the window using her back as an awkward fulcrum. Yori remained holding on to her getting dragged out the window roughly sending the two of them to the dirt ground below on their back.

She let out a low groan feeling the dagger of pain cut through her. A bit of regret surfaced realizing how much it hurt. Yumi rose to her feet working on getting her bearings back. Screams in the distance still lingered and grew in volume. Homes invaded and broken softly played in the background. "Where'd Yuki go?" she asked herself trying to find signs of him.

Still reeling from the fall and surprise that his sister acted so suddenly, Yori staggered to get to his feet. Once he managed to get some support from the building he focused on Yumi, distracted by her search. "What do you think you're doing, Yumi!? Do you know how reckless and dangerous that was!? You could've been seriously hurt if you fell wrong!"

His sister gave him a half sheepish knock on her head knowing how right he was. "We didn't get hurt though! So everything worked out!"

Yori sighed to himself seeing that he had little left to reason with against her. 'Is Hayashi's thoughtless heroics starting to rub off on her? I need to keep them further apart…'

Across the village already running towards the source of the ruckus, Yuki and Seiji saw someone in the military uniform standing out in the street. Around them villagers ran about in panic and fear yelling in a language that neither could understand. The few villagers that paid attention in their blind running realized that Yuki and Seiji faces stood out from the rest screaming even louder.

The closer that they came to the figure the more everything seemed to divide before them. It was as though the man's presence made it so that the frightened souls unconsciously moved for his will. He slowly slid his eyes to them picking up their arrival.

Yuki felt an odd sense of unease from seeing the man. There was coldness in his eyes that he never felt from the assassins that sought for his life. 'What's this strange feeling? Like I've seen it before…' The only time he remembered seeing such eyes was when Eudokia killed. An expression lacked any sense of remorse or regret only driven by purpose. 'So cold… Why does he seem so commanding?'

When they came within a house of the man Seiji and Yuki stopped. The Atlantean spoke to them in a foreign tongue that left both of them confused. Seiji searched over at Yuki for a clue to what the man said to them. "There's something familiar about his words, but I can't understand him!"

A nod from Yuki agreed with Seiji, though he had a little better luck. "It's familiar because I think he's speaking in English."

"Huh? But I thought the girl said it was Greek!"

"Maybe he thinks we're American or something."

Seiji threw up his fist at the man in frustration. "We're Japanese! Ja-pa-nese!" All he got in return was confusion. The same look of peculiarity that they gave the Atlantean a moment ago did not make him any happier. "Damn language! How we going to tell him to stop?"

"I don't know," shrugged Yuki. "I think fists will be the only answer at this point…"

"I like the way you talk, Yuki!" Seiji grinned eagerly pounding his fists together to psych himself up. The arrival of a second man out of the nearby house made the numbers even. His sights turned to the younger man that just appeared. "You can get the old man, Yuki! This new one's mine!"

A bit of a sweat dripped down Yuki. "I don't think the man's even in his thirties, Seiji!"

"What do I care? He's older than me!"

Yuki sighed having forgotten how straightforward Seiji used to be from their old days. "True enough, I guess…" The thought of standing side by side with Seiji in a fight made Yuki a little excited. A normal fight that came down to only strength of muscles and reflex felt right. He missed the feeling that it gave him. Yuki let out a gentle smirk marking down his target.

"Don't run too far, Yumi!" shouted Yori trying to keep up with Yumi. Once they oriented themselves something triggered in her. She claimed that she knew where Yuki was in the village, but had no explanation other than a feeling. The same feeling from before when they met everyone for the first time. Yori did not understand it too well, but the accuracy that she had then made it difficult for him to doubt her intuition. "Yumi!"

Yumi blew around a corner of a home with certain in each step. All of the sounds of the village faded into the background for her. She let her sight from within guide her. 'I can feel him! He's close! Yuki!' The next corner disappeared and a few villagers crashed past her knocking her down. Her foot worked to get under her to rise back up.

'Look out!' shouted a voice from inside her.